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Exploring Representations of Race, Religion and Poverty in Media
- 1. Race, Religion and Poverty DR CERI HUGHES
- 2. Orientalism – Edward Said West has typically depicted the “East” as a monolithic entity In reality the “East” cannot be defined geographically, culturally, ethnically. East is a comparative term – simply depends where you start. Western-centric view of the East conjured up. The East geographically
- 3. Geographic East Mainly from 60o to 180o longitude and mainly North of the Equator Very vague geographic notion – covering North Africa, Middle East, Asia But this covers dozens of countries, cultures, religions, hundreds of languages and billions of people
- 4. Colonialism Civilized West vs Barbaric East Job of colonizers was to civilize the East US - Rational Occident (West) and THEM – Irrational Orient (East) This dichotomy helped reinforce Western culture and identity Identity often comes from what/who you are not Recent examples?
- 5. Othering “Send them back”
- 6. Orientalism Arabs and Muslims depicted as inferior “others” Backward, violent, anti-Western values Rhetoric could hark back to the Crusades – the last Christian / Muslim fights
- 7. The Crusades Started with Christian pilgrimages to Jerusalem Christians repression reported Doctrine of holy war (“just war”) became accepted. Four major crusades over a century Became part of Western identity
- 8. Forward a few hundred years… Huntington (1993, 1996) foretells an enduring clash of cultures between the Judeo-Christian West and Islamic Confucian East Post Cold War (circa 1990) the West had lost its main enemy in the USSR We needed another other First Gulf War Arab-Israel conflict Then 9/11 Clash of civilizations became a popular frame of reference George W. Bush – “good” v “evil”
- 9. Images of Islam Which of these images depicts Islam? Which images do we see most often depicting Islam? Abu Hamza Al-Baghdadi Andy and Nada
- 10. (Mis)understanding of Islam ‘the electronic and print media have been awash with demeaning stereotypes that lump together Islam and terrorism, or Arabs and violence, or the Orient and tyranny’ (Said, 2003) Homogenised view of Islam and Muslims – violent, devout, fanatic Islam = Fundamentalism in the eyes of many in the West, much of it led by media representations
- 11. Disney? Really? You’re having a go at Disney?
- 12. Muslims and terrorism Adage of “not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims” is clearly both inaccurate and racist Number of deaths worldwide in 2017 – 56 million, 26,000 from terrorism – just 0.05% In Western countries this figure is <0.01% Yet, in the US 50% of people are “very” or “somewhat” worried about being a victim of terrorism In recent years, Muslims have been responsible for 12.5% of terrorist attacks in the US. Yet these attacks received 50% of news coverage of attacks
- 15. Islamophobia Takes into account both anti-Muslim prejudice but also the effects this has on individuals and communities Runnymede Trust (1997): The term Islamophobia refers to unfounded hostility towards Islam. It refers also to the practical consequences of such hostility in unfair discrimination against Muslim individuals and communities, and to the exclusion of Muslims from mainstream political and social affairs. Some argue that this definition in itself homogenizes Muslims into one group Halliday (1999) argues that it is not so much fear of Islam, but fear of Muslim immigrants to the West
- 16. Islamophobia But whatever the arguments about its meaning, the generally considered definition has seen sharp increases in recent years Seen in various ways (Beydoun, 2016): Blatant (violence and vitriol directed at Muslims) Latent (dormant, but within certain audiences) Structural (built into social and political systems) E.g. Naturalization era in the US (1790-1952) – Christianity was a proxy for White which was needed to become a US citizen Discriminatory practices in hiring, housing, education Observance only of Christian holidays and traditions
- 17. Trump Radical Islamic terrorism My study of 170 speeches and 30,000 tweets by Trump found he basically only ever spoke about Islam in terms of terrorism Top ten words collocated with Islam terms Speeches Tweets Word Jaccard’s coefficient Word Jaccard’s coefficient Radical 0.569 Radical 0.507 Terrorists 0.303 Terror* 0.178 Terror* 0.295 Terrorism 0.153 Terrorism 0.159 Terrorists 0.087 Program 0.088 Terror 0.071 Syrian 0.076 Terrorist 0.045 Hell 0.051 Term 0.038 Elected 0.045 Smart 0.038 Terror 0.040 Threat 0.038 Defeat 0.038 Mention 0.032 * – includes terror, terrorist(s) and terrorism
- 18. Contemporary examples Banning the burkini on some French beaches Banning of new Minarets in Switzerland Muslim ban
- 19. Racism Racism usually has taken the form of discriminating based on skin colour and other biological features Newer understanding of racism include notions of national, ethnic, cultural and religious identities Is Islamophobia a form of racism? Depends who you ask!
- 20. Racism New racism underlined with the concept that “foreigners have their natural homes” (Barker, 1981) Racism serves to protect the “interests of the in-group” It is a theory of human nature. Human nature is such that it is natural to form a bounded community, a nation, aware of its differences from other nations. They are not better or worse. But feelings of antagonisms will be aroused if outsiders are admitted. (Barker, 1981)
- 21. Structural racism One of my studies… We surveyed hundreds of people in the state of Wisconsin to ask them about barriers they had to voting (e.g. long lines at polls, long time to get to the polling station) What was the one feature of a person we found that predicted having some barrier to voting? Being black. Another of my studies… We examined 75 mass shootings in the US and recorded all the features of the shooting (that was a fun summer) We looked at press coverage and social media interaction of these events What was the feature of shootings which predicted less media coverage? The victims being black
- 22. Moral panics and folk devils is a common construction in all eras E.g. in the 1950s it was the rock n roll, 60s it was hippies, 70s punk, 80s video nasties, 90s clubbing drug culture, 2000s internet paedophiles Also bigger more existential threats – the Red threat in the Cold War was replaced by the Muslim terrorist threat in the 2000s
- 23. Who are they? What do they represent?
- 24. Othering Highlighting differences between usually in-groups and out-groups (British = in, immigrant = out, our citizens = in, them = out) Muslims = immigrants, asylum seekers, refugees = out Muslim culture antithetical to western values Conflation of Islamic faith and terrorism Muslim voices often side lined in coverage
- 27. Images matter What are the differences in these two sets of images? What about the next two sets? What was searched for?
- 31. Outcomes Increasing feelings of stigmatization by some Muslims Feelings of distrust towards institutions like media and government Feelings of being “victims” of press coverage rather than Potentially increasing resentment amongst Muslims Evidence of increased attacks on Muslims (and those who seem Muslim)
- 32. Farrington – Race and sports journalism We continually use race as a category, but it is an amorphous construct What race are you? Am I? Hall (1996) - It is intertwined with elements of biology, culture, religion and nation “Racial differences” are social inventions All homo sapiens are 99.99% genetically the same Yet, race attempts to “draw boundaries between people” (Pilkington, 2003) Skin colour is the primary definer which has been used Race is scientifically useless as a concept for the hard sciences But still useful for social science
- 33. Racism We can define racism as any set of claims or arguments which signify some aspect of the physical features of an individual or group as a sign of permanent distinctiveness and which attribute additional negative characteristics and or consequences to the individual’s or group’s presence. (Miles, 1989) Racism is the doctrine that the world’s population is divisible into categories based on physical differences which can be transmitted genetically. Invariably, this leads to the conception that the categories are ordered hierarchically so that some elements of the world’s population are superior to others. (Cashmore, 1982)
- 34. Others “Ethnic restaurants” “Going for an Indian” Why might such phrases be problematic? Others are grouped as an entity – a single body possessing no individuality Why is this a problem?
- 35. Imagined communities Tropes used to evoke feelings of solidarity and community We don’t know the vast majority of people in our community (whatever you take that to mean) so we need something to bind us. That evolved over time into the nation- state Race, as traditionally considered as meaning skin colour is the most visible, permanent and easy way to identify in-group members from out-group members Historical narratives and symbols reinforce notions of national identity The UK as a White Christian country is an easy community with which to identify. British = White. English = White. Therefore, not White ≠ British/English
- 36. Malcolm X ‘Racism is like a Cadillac. The 1960 Cadillac doesn’t look like the1921 Cadillac, but it is still a Cadillac; it has simply changed form’
- 37. Overt and Covert E.g. BNP in the UK, National Front in France Leave campaign poster – what is the problem? What is it saying?
- 38. Why are black athletes so good?
- 39. No evidence of inherent black “sporting gene” But it is used to further stereotypes – blacks only succeed in sports because of a genetic advantage Fits into long-held racist notions of fear of the powerful black man Generally accepted premise in much of sports reporting and with many sportspeople too (of all races) There is also an implied assertion that physical ability comes at the expense of mental ability
- 40. Sports reporting University of Colorado study “strong”, “quick”, “natural ability”, “innate talent” “intelligent”, “good leader”, “game management”, “hard work”
- 42. Mediated messages Most people have little experience of racial difference Therefore much of what they know comes from media representations They may be the “primary definer” (Hall, 1978) of the issue Leads to acceptance of (false) positions Why else might the 100m final be dominated by black athletes, or most NBA rosters predominantly black?
- 43. How many studies have examined why this happens? Has there been a news report asking why white people are good at swinging a stick at a ball? Any studies which have identified a golf gene?
- 44. Diversity and Sports Journalism Most newsrooms are still predominantly white Sports journalism is dominated by white (male, straight) voices Journalism Forum survey found 96% of journalists are white Lack of BME students in journalism courses – 23% of university population is BME (roughly inline with population at that age) but only 12% of journalism students are BME (2010 figures) Lack of diversity in positions of power in newsrooms (Sutton Trust, 2006) Very homogenous privileged backgrounds of leading journalists Just 14% educated in comprehensive school 45% Oxbridge educated
- 45. Diversity and Sports Journalism Similar picture in the US >1/3rd of the US is from BME groups Only 13% of newsroom staff in newspapers are BME “At the moment, there are only two black faces you see on the British athletics circuit, in terms of journalists, and when you compare that to what you see on the track … I don’t think we have a black member of the BAWA. We had a dinner recently for the BAWA awards and I had to give a speech and I looked around the room and there was one black face and that was a coach” (Simon Turnbull, chairman of British Athletics Writers Association, 2011)
- 46. Diversity and Sports Journalism Situation often seems better in broadcast than print due to a more established participant commentator pipeline Why do you think that is? Certain amount of “window-dressing” – very few of these commentators have transitioned to journalist roles, they are employed more because of what they did in their sports career than journalistic abilities. What are Maggie, Robbie and Garth doing here?
- 47. Self-sustaining cycle of exclusion “Why are there so few black sports journalists? I think it’s because of a sense that they don’t belong. I think from the black community, there’s the perception that they don’t fit in. That it’s not a job for us. (Rodney Hinds, sports editor of The Voice) “I’ve spoken to some of the (black) lads who do cover athletics and they feel that people aren’t friendly, and they don’t feel part of the crowd. It’s a very cliquey sort of pack mentality-driven profession. In terms of athletics, the national writers would knock around together and these lads don’t feel a part of that.” (Simon Turnbull, Chairman of BAWA) “There are no obvious pioneers and that’s discouraging” (Greg Gobere) Continued messages that BME should be on the pitch rather than writing about events on the pitch. However…
- 48. But there is progress England cricket team 2005 and 2019 Circled faces are regular pundits onscreen Maybe the non-white faces in the second picture will be in a few years (But let’s remember that skin pigmentation is only one type of diversity) AND that would be only one small step
- 49. On the plus side… Not so long ago this would have been all white faces Greater representation of BME on the pitch will likely lead to greater BME writing off the pitch On the minus side… It’s still a white dude who is manager It is still more likely that it will be one of the white faces who will move into writing off the pitch
- 50. Concluding The UK is an increasingly multicultural country Journalism must reflect this, in both reporting and reporters Aspiring BME sports writers need role models to be inspired by BME writers though need to be enabled to write as BME writers and not have to adopt a “white mask” We ALL need better education on these issues We ALL have a responsibility to work on these issues – this is not something for BME people to fix Always ask – is including the race of a person required for the story
- 51. Continuing the cheery theme – poverty… Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set ambitious targets on global poverty Little evidence that they have been achieved Poverty is still largely hidden and poorly reported Extreme periodic instances such as famines do receive a lot of coverage but it is episodic and rarely examines structural causes of poverty
- 52. Social construction of news News is socially constructed. What does that mean? That we (or more precisely, powerful people) largely decide what is news “All the news which is fit to print” (Herman & Chomsky, 1988) Media are businesses, often part of giant multinationals Poor people don’t buy newspapers, don’t read newspapers, they certainly don’t own newspapers What causes poverty?
- 53. Poverty as anomaly Poverty represented as an anomaly which the system can fix Rarely presented as the system itself which is responsible for poverty Official narrative became that economic growth was the way to alleviate poverty Fairly simple idea. If there is more money, more wealth, a bigger pie, everyone should get a bigger slice of pie Simples!
- 54. Economics of growth Growth is good A strong economy helps everyone Rich people getting richer helps the poor Job creators Individual success from hardwork GDP GDP GNP GNP Trickle-down economics
- 55. Inequality THERE IS ENOUGH WEALTH IN THE WORLD TO GO AROUND WHO ARE THESE EIGHT MEN?
- 56. They own as much wealth as 50% of the world’s population (3.6 bn people) Bill Gates: America founder of Microsoft (net worth $75 billion) Amancio Ortega: Spanish founder of Inditex which owns the Zara fashion chain (net worth $67 billion) Warren Buffett: American CEO and largest shareholder in Berkshire Hathaway (net worth $60.8 billion) Carlos Slim Helu: Mexican owner of Grupo Carso (net worth: $50 billion) Jeff Bezos: American founder, chairman and chief executive of Amazon (net worth: $45.2 billion) Mark Zuckerberg: American chairman, chief executive officer, and co-founder of Facebook (net worth $44.6 billion) Larry Ellison: American co-founder and CEO of Oracle (net worth $43.6 billion) Michael Bloomberg: American founder, owner and CEO of Bloomberg LP (net worth: $40 billion)
- 57. Definitions of poverty These are not fixed but context dependent Many countries use a measure of percentage of national income average – relative wealth as a measure of poverty Others, such as the US and World Bank use absolute measures – WB figure is anyone who lives on less than $2 a day
- 58. Famine or “areas of malnutrition” Labelling something as a famine has political consequences Famine is stating that a country cannot supply food for its citizens – something countries may be reluctant to admit However, the label does come with media coverage – it is newsworthy Famines are unambiguous, episodic, defined Structural situations of poverty are much harder to cover in a five-minute broadcast slot
- 59. Official sources “strategic ritual of objectivity” often means journalists get used to telling both sides of a story However, that often results in contacting an official government source and an official opposition source (who likely swapped roles a couple of years back and will do so again in a few years). These voices have credibility Even when there is elite consensus, journalists feel they have done their job – and most elites agree on the principle of poverty alleviation They are much less likely to ask people in poverty for their thoughts – they lack credibility - <12% of sources (McKendrick et al., 2008) Also lack of resources makes it much easier to use official sources – media are not usually headquartered in areas of poverty As does someone who proffers a radical alternative solution
- 60. What about… Everybody who earns over £1bn should have to donate all money above that figure to a poverty alleviation program Or maybe £100m? £10m? The top option would give us £400bn just from the eight richest people This could double the wealth of the poorest 50% on the planet
- 61. What poverty can look like
- 62. Representations of poverty Often POC In the US, often African-Americans in urban settings Classic trope of the “welfare queen” In reality poverty is often a worse problem in white rural areas Images reduce public support for greater welfare provision
- 63. And in the UK… Pensions and other benefits for those post- work dwarf working-age benefit spending Enduring myth of huge families receiving £100,000+ in benefits Public perception (TUC survey) is that >25% of benefit spending goes to fraud Actual government figures estimate around 0.8% Why this discrepancy?
- 64. And in the UK…
- 65. Images of the poor – “rescue efforts in Haiti”
- 66. Rich (and White) folks to the rescue In the aftermath of catastrophic disasters politicians and other elites invariably go on ‘media parade’, symbolically positioning themselves among the carnage and devastation, conducting walkabouts and meeting survivors and commending emergency service and relief workers on their professionalism and heroic efforts – all in front of the cameras. (Cottle, 2009)
- 67. Relationships of power The rich/the West have the power in the relationship It is they who can choose (or not) to intervene It is they who can choose to “adopt” a child from Africa Poor people live in “slums”, “shanty towns”
- 68. Journalists and poverty Few journalists have first-hand experience of poverty Many at leading outlets are private-educated Many journalists have to undertake unpaid internships to break into the field – not something you can do without money Therefore views on poverty are largely evolved from representations of poverty
- 69. Poverty and history Poverty was essentially the norm for most of human civilization – people did not have possessions, had to hunt for, or grow, food Then societies developed occupations and ideas of monetary systems With the industrial revolution however and mass-urbanisation societies split into the haves and have-nots Some terms: Social Darwinism – idea of the survival of the fittest: some in society will not survive as they are not fit for society Malthusianism – idea that populations tend to increase at a faster rate than available resources Notion that poverty alleviation is an act of voluntary will rather than a statutory obligation – “God loves a giver”
- 70. Robert Malthus His ideas led to questioning as to whether charitable giving to the poor was the right thing to do, or something that merely prolongs their suffering The undeserving poor may be taking resources from the deserving (poor or not) Early notions also of the “honest” poor and “dishonest” poor Clear echoes today
- 71. Objective journalism Influenced by the scientific method of evidence and reporting without influence – i.e. objectively Historically the press had been very partisan with most newspapers evolving as mouthpieces of political parties and trade unions Objectivity around poverty was reporting on it using multiple sources, but usually all official sources with the same meta-narrative Ideology of objectivity became a core value in journalism practice (Schudson, 2001) This came at the expense of explanation as the primary goal (Carey, 1986)
- 72. “Science” of eugenics Popularised in late 19th century – idea that some races are inferior to others This had long been a belief in Western societies and was used to justify slavery and colonization However, by making it appear as objective science, proponents such as Francis Galton and Karl Pearson were able to convince many people Journalists saw this as accepted science and therefore covered it as objective truth Claims led to development of “objective” tests for IQ and standardizing test scores
- 73. Globalisation of information Around this same time (end of 19th century) global news agencies such as Havas in France (AFP is now the agency) and Reuters in the UK became dominant information providers They went with the dominant and official narrative on poverty abroad Eugenics and social Darwinism were dominant paradigms The broader questions on the root causes of poverty were avoided – a question still largely absent Explaining poverty in the West was a more difficult task… So mainstream newspapers largely ignored it
- 74. 1926 miner’s strike – Lord Reith DG of the BBC wrote anti-union speeches for Prime Minister Baldwin 1980s miner’s strike – front-page of The Sun which was never printed as printers refused Trend for media to not be on the side of working- class struggles
- 75. Post-war Change in Western emphasis – poverty alleviation was in-line with globalisation , and new world order of hyper-capitalism Businesses needed people to make stuff, and buy stuff Therefore bringing people out of poverty enabled them to become consumers Growth was the model for poverty alleviation Growth of powerful neo-liberal think tanks pushed the narrative of dismantling the welfare state and the “undeserving poor” 1980s doctrine under Thatcher in the UK and Reagan in the US
- 76. Mansions and Slums Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein – “mansions on the hill… threatened by the slums below” IQ tests used as “proof” of IQ differences amongst races Underclass should embrace free-market rather than welfare
- 77. Mediatization of politics Interlinking of policy decisions with publicity-seeking activities Policies are developed with an embedded requirement of fitting with media requirements (e.g. increase spending by a nice round £10bn, or funding for a disease in vogue rather than a more pressing issue) to engender support for that policy Mediatized statistics can help define a problem and then be used to show success in dealing with the problem GDP has been used as the indicator of economic success (and therefore poverty success). But if misses many important factors (natural resource use, pollution). Other indicators have tried to compete (e.g. Happy Planet Index) Truth in Numbers (Porter) – people like stats, journalists like stats, politicians like stats, people believe them
- 79. And finally finally, a plea IF YOU ARE ELIGIBLE, REGISTER TO VOTE! THEN VOTE!